One of the topics that infiltrates our airwaves, at least during my program, is that of drug abuse. Lately, particularly vicodin, oxy, perkocet, etc… Heck, we’ve even done topics on Poppy Seed Tea. One plauge that we rarely discuss, however, I hear it’s huge in Western Sussex and all across the country for that matter is the scourge of Crystal Meth.

I want you to check out a documentary I caught on Youtube called “Crystal Darkness” — I’m contemplating playing segments of the program on the air in a series. Here’s some information on the documentary from Al Tompkins:

“Originally produced for Reno TV stations in January 2007, “Crystal Darkness” used interviews with addicts from all walks of life, graphic images of the damage done and sobering violent-crime statistics. It also provided a toll-free number for people to get help.

The program that ran on all Reno stations proved so popular, says producer Mike Reynolds, a Reno advertising executive, that other communities sought localized versions of the documentary.

In May in Las Vegas, 50 percent of the households tuned in to the documentary, according Nielsen ratings. In August, 25 stations in five Oregon cities broadcast the documentary, and newspaper reports say the toll-free number was flooded with calls. And in December, San Diego stations blanketed the airwaves.”

Here are the parts of the Documentary from youtube.

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five

Today, I post a “listener contribution”:

Dear Dan,

Well, ABC GMA ran a story this morning on Anesthesia Awareness. I first read about this in a Readers Digest a few months ago. We discussed it on the air briefly. I think it’s just about a nightmare to think about. As someone who just went through two surgeries, I can’t imagine having to be awake for those, let alone something more drastic. When the anestiologist asked me if I’d prefer to be knocked out or if I just wanted a local… I almost panicked. “Knock me out… now!” — Yes, the idea of this is terrifying:

“You’re screaming inside your body,” said Carol Weihrer, a victim of anesthesia awareness. “You’re trying to crawl off the gurney, you’re trying to move a toe, you’re trying to wince … and there is absolutely nothing you can do.”

Weihrer woke up on the operating table while doctors were removing her diseased eye.

“I heard my surgeon say to the resident, ‘Cut deeper and pull harder,’” she said. “And I finally realized they were not finished; they were just starting. So the senses that I felt were the tremendous pulling. I had seen them cut my optic nerve and I knew when everything went black. I wanted to get off that table or to die.”

But, the truth is… You’re not really in danger. Doctors say less that one tenth or one percent of patients experience this in surgery. But, it is another way for the news to scare the you know what out of you. So, go now! Continue to terrify the people!

Yesterday on my program, We featured guest Estelle Nuebling to talk about a 24-year0old struggling with cancer and increased medical bills. They are holding a fundraiser/Garage Sale to help with his medical bills, and I promised that I would post the information here…

from stephenjkunitskyfund.org:In November of 2006, three weeks before graduating from the Delaware County Municipal Police Academy, Steve was diagnosed with a very rare and aggressive form of cancer known as neuronendocrine cancer.  He underwent chemotherapy and radiation treatments and had a large tumor surgically removed from his neck.  After countless scans, dozens of pain killers and a few too many trips to the doctor, Steve completely conquered the cancer. His only worry was repaying his astronomical medical fees which he learned would not be covered by his new insurance policy. He then discovered that the advice he’d gotten from the public assistance office was incorrect. Much of the financial aid received while undergoing his treatments now needs to be paid back.

Less than two months passed before the cancer returned, and as is so often the case was stronger than ever.  A new scan revealed tumors and traces of the disease in his spine, chest and neck. In response, he was given three new forms of chemotherapy.  The doctors are confident in the treatment they have administered but are concerned with the speed and aggressive nature of the cancer’s return. Steve left the hospital with an oxygen tank due to a large tumor in his chest which makes it hard to breathe. He must return to the hospital every three weeks for treatment, and has been told that going to work is out of the question. The day-to-day for Steve is very stressful, but generally, he keeps himself very positive. He hasn’t lost his sense of humor at all.  Those who know Steve will not be surprised by this information.

Estelle is looking for items for the garage sale… more informaiton to follow. Drop off points for merchandise include Kupchicks in Lewes, Bethel United Methodist Church, Antiques - Rt 9 in Harbeson and the radio station. For more information contact Estelle @ 302-875-8961 or her son Chris @ 302-745-4787

 

A legal announcement in a local paper caught one of my listener’s eyes:

“Sealed proposals for Bid #7193 for Condoms will be received by the Procurement Branch, Delaware Health and Social Services”.  We sent for the complete specifications and the bid package and found some interesting facts about how your tax dollars will be spent of these condoms.

First, the condoms are said to be needed by “various state agencies” some of which we assume are local schools because part of the package includes instructions on how the winning bid can get paid when supplying local school districts.  The bid specifications for the condoms needed over the next year in Delaware are listed as follows:

10,000 small size regular sensitivity condoms.

136,000 regular fit multicolored condoms.

47,000 regular fit “multi-flavored” condoms.  (Yes, the government wants flavored condoms!)

106,000 regular fit studded or ribbed condoms.  (For “her” pleasure we presume?)

46,000 regular fit “sensitive/ultra-thin”.

11,000 large condoms, regular sensitivity (Note: 1,000 more large than small.  “It’s Good Being First” tm.)

16,000 Large “black or natural color” sensitive/ultra thin.  (large, black, sensitive?)

31,000 female condoms

24,000 male polyurethane condoms (For those with latex allergies I presume)

10,000 dental dams ( Insert your own joke here about what branch of state government might need these)

 

437,000 condoms paid for by you and handed out for free all over schools and state offices in the next year.  Don’t we go beyond so called “safe sex” when we are getting into “flavored” “ribbed” and “sensitive”? 

 

If you were an inexperienced airline traveler, would you get on a plane if you new that at least 1 out of 10 flights crashed?  If you were an experienced air traveler would you fly today knowing that 1 in 100 flights today will crash?  These stats reflect the failure rate of condoms when used properly to prevent STD’s.  When used incorrectly we assume the planes crash more frequently.

 

For us, the reviled smokers, at least.  Yesterday afternoon I had a call from a group protesting the projected tax hike of 60 cents on a pack of cigarettes, $6 on a carton.  I was asked if I wanted to make my own protest known, to which I answered yes and I was patched to Rep. Schwartzkopf’s office.  His voice mail was full so I was then asked if I wanted to leave my message elsewhere…patched to a clerk’s phone but there was no answer.  Maybe it’s voice mail, too, was full.  So I guess I’ll express my protest here.

So far our habit isn’ as costly as it is in NJ or NY…or Canada or the UK.  In mentioning this increase to my sister she wasn’t overly sympathetic since they pay almost $10 for a pack of twenty cigarettes.  Yeah..but they have to import the tobacco…it’s not grown there like we have here.  The majority of the cost of cigarettes is taxation but why, in the name of all that’s holy can anyone justify slinging more taxes on the plant-based habit while encouraging the populace to verbally picket those who smoke, at every opportunity…using every effort and ploy they can to leper-ize them?  Anti-smokers justify their position, frequently, by complaining they don’t want to have to keep paying increased health care costs for such as we who enjoy this nefarious habit but, for some reason, don’t seem to mind slamming tax upon tax on us to help provide the amenities they, themselves, want or think they need.  You know, we always hear complaints about  government aid to the impoverished, those who won’t work…or can’t, public housing, illegal aliens because “this is OUR tax dollars at work”!  Well, there something a little strange about a reviled segment of the population being required to pay more taxes to provide for the State coffers while, along with that comes the ”privilege” of being abused.  An it IS abuse.  No…I do NOT want my representative to agree to this in any shape or form.  

I’m sitting here listening during the 9-12 spot this morning and hear John Mixon wax eloquent on cigarette smokers.  Now, in part, I agree that tossing a cigarette butt out of a car window is an annoyance, a fire hazard, even an injury waiting to happen to the occupants in the car behind but to say that all cigarette smokers are just “inconsiderate” is wrong.  Okay…John first said “99.1%”, talked about the militant smoke’s web-site being ”something of a dichotomy” but then continued his harangue that all smokers were considerate. 

Hey…I’m a smoker, been one for thirty-one years and, frankly, find myself to be more considerate in my “bad” habit than most who believe themselves to have no bad habits…particularly of the sort which would irritate others.  But I’m curious about one thing…how is it that all smokers were lumped together as inconsiderate nincompoops (that last my word, not the host’s although the implication was there) yet when a caller moved over to beer (or even soda) drinkers tossing their cans out car windows into roadways and fields, it was passed off as juvenile misbehaviour?  Not so!  Here’s another one for you…diaper chucking.  And those disposable diapers are as non-biodegradable as a cigarette filter.  Take a drive along any tree-lined road in the county and try to count the plastic grocery bags hanging on the underbrush, waving from tree limbs or snagged on long grass.  Bet you can’t! (Count them, I mean)

Look, inconsiderate factions effectively removed smoker’s enjoyment of an evening out dining, enjoying an after dinner drink…even though most places had already segregated the beautiful from the ugly in seperate areas.  We get the rude, inconsiderate sneers and comments even when we smoke outdoors…where smoking is NOT banned, YET.  At a certain hospital in the area you canot smoke on their campus..you can’t even smoke in your own car, in their parking lot so, if…God forbid…you have a loved one going through surgery or very ill you can’t go destress to take a couple of puffs in the privacy of your own vehicle unless you drive somewhere else and if, hallelujah, you are a new Dad forget the celebratory cigar on the birth of your son or daughter until you get home. 

I think throwing anything from a car window is repulsive and wrong;  I think dumping one’s ashtray in the corner of a parking lot is disgusting and wrong; blowing smoke in someone’s face is rude and wrong but if we are going to talk about “inconsiderate” let’s not lump every smoker in there.  You know what…as considerate and deferential a smoker as I am and always have been I’m more and more tempted to push those natural tendencies aside and join the rest who “just blow smoke” with or without a cigarette in their hand…or mouth.   

How about you?  Do you plan to go see “Sicko” when it comes to a theater near you?  I hope you do…as I certainly plan to…not that most of us don’t already know the state of the health care system in this country is absolutely abysmal and has been for far too long.  Read items like THIS and THIS (among far too many others like them) and one has to wonder how we stooped so low.  When did medicine become a “for profit” organization?  What happened to the Hippocratic Oath and “First do NO harm”?  If you happen to disagree with a more equal system, “socialised” medicine, how do you reconcile that disagreement with the 9 million kids who do not have access to health care…and what would be your suggestion?  I doubt there is another on offer…except for “I’ve got mine and so I don’t care”. 

One argument often heard is “Why should we pay for everyone else’s medical care” (with regards to a system similar to either Canada or the UK).  Why not?  We pay for it, anyway, as noted here…

“Marian Wright Edelman, of the Children’s Defense Fund, called the problem a “national disgrace.”  The crisis “not only costs lives of children and stress for families, but it also costs taxpayers money,” she added.

Here’s how it costs taxpayers money:

When Carol Martin’s son, Simon, had an infected toe, she could not afford to take him to the doctor. She cut a hole in his shoe and hoped it would get better. But it got worse.  After five months fighting red tape, she got public insurance for her son, but by then his foot required expensive surgery — a bill taxpayers swallowed.

“I’m not looking for a handout,” said Martin. “I just need assistance. Health care. That’s all.”

When uninsured children do get medical care, that care is often inferior. One study from Families USA said an uninsured child is twice as likely to die when hospitalized, when compared to an insured child.”

What would it take for any one of us to change our minds on this travesty?  I can tell you…our own child or children to die from an abcessed tooth, cancer or other serious illness simply because we, you, I lacked health insurance through no fault of our own and no-one gave a damn.

I don’t care…because it doesn’t matter…what the personal opinions are of Michael Moore.  Go see the movie…(June 29th. release date…if it comes here).  

  

So a man decides his wedding and honeymoon are more important than anyone’s health…never mind his own…sprints through several countries to Greece and back, sneaks in via Canada when the CDC tell him he is NOT to fly aboard commercial airlines, drives from Montral to the US and, courtesy of the CDC is taken to Atlanta to be hospitalized. Now airlines, several countries, an hotel and who knows how many others are on a search for those who had close contact with this…pompous jerk. He calls himself a “successful, intelligent man” yet freely admits that when told he had to turn himself into Italian health authorities…”…you’re nuts! I wasn’t going to do that!”

Okay, so “they” say he isn’t a threat despite the fact that it was already termed a “fatal form of the disease” as well as “rare” and drug resistant. Oh…that’s reassuring…and NOT the point. Currently under armed guard quarantine in Atlanta, he’s got the nerve to be choked that he’s being guarded. Why? And why is he not being prosecuted? Anyone else who threatened GBH would be…and rightly so. This man…not only is he as bad, he’s worse. And certainly not what I would call intelligent.

Me, I’d do the same with him as has been done with other, most of them only so-called Domestic Terrorists…lock him up, let him sit and wait a trial that could take a few years and let’s see how “intelligent” he thinks he is, then.